Beca got out of the shower in a towel, swaying her hips to the song that was blasting through the stereo. Her hangover was still there and the song was making it worse. It felt like someone was nailing her skull. —The beat was sick, though.
The moment she lowered the volume of the music, she heard a groan from Stacie's room followed by, "Turn it up, Mitchell."
To which Beca replied with, "Fuck you. Use headphones."
As she got to the fridge to pour a glass of water to fight dehydration with, she noticed a note near a glass on the counter.
She held the note and read it.
'This magical drink will cure your hangover.
Bottoms up.
PS: she really is scary to be around.'
Beca smiled to herself, flipping the piece of paper she found a phone number with another note.
'Don't forget to call me.
You know, to feed my ego by telling me how awesome I am for curing your hangover.
-Jesse S.'
Dork. She picked up the drink.
The first sip was hesitant. She didn't know what to expect. Huh not bad. Finishing the drink in one breath, she slammed the glass on the counter, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and eyeing the note Jesse left her again.
A week later, on Friday to be precise, Beca was climbing out of her car. Walking to her apartment complex, she checked a text she received from Chole.
'Don't forget to bring a date. Yes a date, Beca. Someone other than Stacie.'
'Do I really need one?' she texted back.
'Yes. I don't care if you even pick him or her up at a bar. Just don't come alone.'
'Fine. I hate you.'
'I love you too Beca.'
It was 2:07 am when she woke up to a pounding on her door.
"Better be fucking Madonna at my doorstep right now," she murmured to herself as she took a look at the time.
Walking up to her front door, she looked through the peephole.
Letting out a sigh, she said, "What the fuck are you doing here?"
"You didn't call," Jesse answered from the other end of the door, his words were slurred.
"Nope. Not the answer I'm looking for. Go away." She shook her head in annoyance. He woke her up at two in the morning. She was not feeling bad for telling him to leave.
"Right." He went quiet for a few seconds. Tiptoeing to check if he left, she watched him walk away and felt a knot tighten in her stomach then saw him fall face first on the floor.
"Jesus Christ," she mumbled and unlocked the front door, hurrying to see if he was okay.
"Hey." He grinned when she helped him sit up.
"You're so pretty, you know that?" He reached for her face to stroke her cheek.
"Fun night, huh?" She pulled her head back.
"Yeah!" he exclaimed.
"Come on, you need to sober up," she grumbled and struggled to get him to stand up.
"You gonna get sick?" Beca checked as she closed the door, worried that he'd puke.
"Narp, I'm good!" he assured, looking at her and smiling.
"Why don't you go take a seat while I make you coffee?" she suggested as they walked into the apartment.
"Okay!" He held on to the wall and, once he was confident he could walk without her help, headed to the couch, obliging like a toddler.
Beca watched him and shook her head as he slammed face first on the couch.
She didn't hear him stand up nor did she hear him when he got to the kitchen. She jumped when she felt him place his hand on her shoulder.
Were those goosebumps she felt?
She shook it off, whatever it was, and tilted her head to look at him.
"Hey, Beca, where's-" He paused then chuckled. "You look funny." Jesse leaned against the sink.
"What do you want?" she questioned as she looked for the mugs. Feeling his gaze, she glanced at him and found him staring at her. He was checking her out and instead of calling him out on it she did the same.
"Jesse, you think you could grab a mug from there?" she sighed, looking away from him. She went back to looking for the freaking mugs. She found them and as expected they were placed somewhere high. She couldn't reach and she knew it but she tried anyway.
"I got it." She heard Jesse say before she felt his body pressed against her from behind and involuntary leaned into him, rubbing herself against him.
She cleared her throat when he groaned, feeling embarrassed, and froze when she felt him trace the tattoo on her shoulder. "This is nice."
"Thanks," she mumbled and turned around so she was facing him to avoid repeating what she just did and realized that it wasn't the best decision. He was standing really close. So close, actually. He got even closer when he leaned over to place the mug on the counter. He frowned when she placed a hand on his chest then moved it upwards until it was cupping his cheek before she leaned up.
He kissed her back when she pressed her lips against his and opened his mouth feeling her tongue lick his button lip.
She felt his smile on her lips as he let her slip her tongue. Beca wrapped her free arm around his neck when he helped sit on the counter.
'What am I doing?' she wondered, pulling him closer.
Without any warning, Jesse pulls away leaving her breathless.
"Wait, I need to take you out on a date first." He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand
"What?" Beca managed to say once she had enough air in her lungs.
"A date. I wanna take you out first," he slurred. "Would you go out with me?" he hopefully asked.
"Dude, you're drunk," she reminded as she rested her hands on the counter.
"Fine. I'll get back to you again when I'm sober," he said with a shrug. "I just remembered what I was gonna ask you earlier," he informed.
"What is it?" she wanted to know.
"Where's the bathroom?"
After motioning for him where to find the bathroom, Beca poured herself a glass of water while she tried to make sense of what had just happened.
Jesse's singing voice cut off her train of thoughts.
"Half past twelve. And I'm watching the late show in my flat all alone. How I hate to spend the evening on my own. Autumn winds. Blowing outside the window as I look around the room. And it makes me so depressed to see the gloom. There's not a soul out there. No one to hear my prayer."
"Abba, really?" Beca snorted, rolling her eyes.
Jesse didn't seem to hear her and proceeded to sing the chorus. "Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight. Won't somebody help me chase the shadows away. Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight. Take me through the darkness to the break of the day"
As he sang, he did some pretty awful, drunken dance moves that left Beca laughing in tears.
He extended his hand to her once he reached her.
"Dude, no."
He pouted and gave her puppy dog eyes that got him an eye roll. He didn't take no for an answer and danced around her until she gave in and joined him.
He looked at her, cueing for her to start singing.
"Oh, what the hell," Beca mumbled joining him in the singing.
"C'mon A Cappela girl, show me a glimpse of A Cappela magic," he requested as she sang.
"Fuck no!"
He shrugged and started doing the instrumental break of the song a cappella himself.
"You're an idiot." He heard.
"There's not a soul out there," he sang, then glanced at Beca who was wondering if any of her neighbors were still asleep. When their gaze met she rolled her eyes.
"No one to hear my prayer," Beca joined in, in both singing and the dorky dancing.
"Well, that was fun," Beca mumbled once they were done.
"This is just a preview, baby," Jesse said, taking a bow.
Beca let out a laugh. "What is it gonna be next time? Rasputin?"
"You'll just have to wait and see." He followed her to the kitchenette.
Handing him a mug of coffee Beca said, "I'm gonna go back to sleep. You can hit the road or just crash here if you want."
"Stacie isn't here, right?" he checked.
"If she was here she wouldn't have missed your performance." She regretted not getting it on camera. "She's out rocking someone's world, probably."
"I'll sleep over, thanks," Jesse grinned. "Night," he called after her when she awkwardly left him alone in the living area.
"Good night," she replied.
Beca woke up the next day to the smell of bacon. Sitting up, she remembered the events of the night before and both the funny ones and the ones that made her cringe.
Shivering at the memory of herself rubbing herself against him, she closed her eyes shut and groaned into the pillow.
Eventually, the smell of breakfast pulled her out of bed.
As she entered the kitchen, she got greeted by a very chipper Jesse making her breakfast.
"You have a habit of making yourself feel at home, did you know that?"
He took his eyes off the stove where he was making scrambled eggs. "Good morning to you, too, milady."
"Why are you smiling? Aren't you supposed to be hungover?" she questioned.
"That would be thanks to my magical cure, the best thing that came out of going to college aside from my degree and the friendships I made."
"You need to teach me how to make that," she pointedly said and leaned against the counter.
"Never. I am sworn to secrecy to take the recipe to my grave and never share it with nerdy A Cappella girls."
"Idiot." She hopped on the counter.
She ran a hand through her hair, recalling what they did at the very same spot and shooing the thought away and failing.
He sat down after placing down breakfast and 2 mugs of coffee on the kitchen table. She slid down from the counter and made her way to the kitchen table, taking a seat next to him.
"Thanks." She dug into breakfast, shaking off the memories of last night's kissing and replacing them with images of his dorky dance moves and his amazing voice.
Letting out a light chuckle, she said, "You have a pretty nice voice."
"I sang to you?" he asked and he ran a hand over his face when she nodded.
"And danced too." She found herself humming the song he sang the previous night.
"God, I thought I dreamed that."
She felt a lump in her throat as he continued, "Anything else happened?"
He doesn't remember. Thank sweet baby Jesus. "Nah," she lied. Was that disappointment she saw in his eyes?
"It was just you showing me your inner diva. Smooth dance moves," she continued
"Thank you," Jesse mumbled, digging his fork into the pancakes.
"Why did come here last night?" she asked after few minutes of silence.
"To be honest, I don't know." He paused for a second, collecting his thoughts. "I couldn't get you off my mind all week long, and you clearly forgot about me. I had to see you again, I guess," he told her without tearing his eyes away from the pancakes.
"I'm sorry," he apologized, looking up to meet her gaze when she didn't say anything back.
She seemed very thoughtful and he figured she was trying to a polite way of telling to leave unaware that Beca was actually debating whether to ask him to go with her to Chloe's party or not. 'Chloe will set me up with her idiot cousin, C'mon Mitchell,' she told herself. 'Ask him.'
"I'll let myself out." He stood up.
It wasn't that she didn't like him. She really did. She was very attracted to him. And she was extremely embarrassed for the way she behaved.
The fact that he forgot was a great convenience.
'I'll tell him, one day,' she told to herself. 'It's the adult thing to do, avoid it until you can't anymore.'
"Wait." He looked down at her. "Um, there's this stupid party that I need to go to and I need a date. I'm willing to forget that you woke me up at two in the morning if you go with me."
His stupid grin lit up his face. "When do I need to pick you up?"
She let out a sigh of relief. "8:00 pm would be great."
Jesse insisted he'd do because he cooked even though Beca objected saying he cooked she should clean. He managed to convince her, however. "You didn't ask me to cook, I did it as an apology for waking you up at an unholy hour." Once he finished, he grabbed a cloth to dry his hands and walked towards Beca's bedroom who he knew left to shower.
"Becs, I'm all done. I'm heading out," he spoke in a loud enough voice once he was near her bedroom.
"Okay," she replied.
As he turned on his heels she opened the door, hair still wet from the shower she just had. "Dress casual for tonight," she told him to which he nodded and unlocked the front door.
Once in her bedroom, Beca grabbed her phone and scrolled down her contact list, until she found his name, (Yeah, she added him but was too much of chicken to call or text.)
'I'm getting you drunk tonight and getting it on camera. Thought I'd give you a heads up.'
'Whatever it takes to make fall in love with me. ;)'
'You're an idiot and creepy.'she replied.
AN: Song used is called Gimme Gimme by Abba.
the song that Beca mentioned is Rasputin by Boney M.